a
little more than half the size of the originals, procured from
the battlefield there by the writer. _These were sent by the
Confederates. Whether any were ever used by the Nationals, the
writer is not informed._ One was made to explode in the body of the
man, and the other to leave a deadly poison in him, whether the
bullet lodged in or passed through him.

Figure A represents the explosive bullet. The perpendicular stem,
with a piece of thin copper hollowed, and a head over it of bullet
metal, fitted a cavity in the bullet proper below it, as seen in the
engraving. In the bottom of the cavity was fulminating powder. When
the bullet struck, the momentum would cause the copper in the outer
disc to flatten, and allow the point of the stem to strike and
explode the fulminating powder, when the bullet would be rent into
fragments which would lacerate the victim.

In figure B the bullet proper was hollowed, into which was inserted
another, also hollow, containing poison. The latter being loose,
would slip out and remain in the victim's body or limbs with its
freight of poison if the bullet proper should pass through. Among
the Confederate wounded at the College were boys of tender age and
men who had been forced into the ranks against their will.

The italics I am responsible for. It is difficult for those who live at
the South to realize how extensively such insinuating slanders as the
above against the Confederates are credited at the North, even by
reading people.

I purpose in this paper to examine the statement of the author of this
Pictorial History, and to show, by indisputable proof, its recklessness
and its falsity. In the above quotation, he states that he had picked
up, on the battlefield of Gettysburg, an _explosive_ and a _poisoned_
ball. "_These_," he adds, "_were sent by the Confederates. Whether any
were ever used by the Nationals, the writer is not informed._" I do not
desire to be severe beyond justice; but it does seem that as no one
ventured to inform him to the contrary, this author accepted the silence
of the world and deliberately put into print this slander against the
Confederates without having made any apparent effort to learn, as he
could have done with ease, whether his statement had any basis of truth.

It is with entire confidence in the facts presented in this paper that I
_deny_ this author's statement, abo